Separator.



Patented Dec. 31, 1912.

. W. R. MORSE SEPARATOR.

APyLloATIoN FILED 1111111.19, 1908.

COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH C0..w^sH|NGT`0N. D. c.

each other and thereby free the precious UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM R. MORSE, OE LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

SEPARATOR.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it'known that I, VILLIAM R. MORSE, a citizen of the United States, residing in Los Angeles, county of Los Angeles, State of California, have invented new and useful Improvements in Separators, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in machines for separating precious metals from gravel or from pulp and the particular object thereof is to save particles of gold and other valuable metals heretofore lost by machines of this class.

Another object is to provide a compact, easily accessible and rapidly operable machine.

I accomplish these .and other objects hereinafter to be referred to by, first, providing improvements in the construction and operation of the vat or tank that receives the con centr'ates, or finer gold-bearing material, from the usual revolving screen which is commonly employed to eliminate the coarser material. The bottom of my improved vat or tank has a three-fold purpose, namely; first, to utilize the force of gravity for the purpose of mixing with each other the contents of opposite sides of the vat so as to obtain uniformity of mixture; secondly, to cause the solid particles to roll and grind metals from the refuse to a large extent even before the separating process proper is begun; thirdly, to cause all of the matter in the vat to move to a single point Where it may be kept in agitated suspension, suitably treated, tempered, diluted, or the co-nsistency thereof changed stepbystep, or in successive small quantities and in the most economical manner at the very moment that it 'passes from the vat or tank to be subjected to the succeeding' steps in the process, economy in the consumption of water being absolutely necessary in many mining places.

I further provide means for regulating and uniformly distributing the material after it leaves the vat or tank by providing a valve-controlled outlet from which the material issues in sprays, and making provision for further controlling the fluidity of the material at this point.

Furthermore, an improved amalgamator, rifie-box, or the like, is provided. This consists of a suitable casing provided with the usual safeguards against loss of precious metal.

Within this casing plates are ar- Specicaton of Letters Patent.

Application filed March 19, 1908.

Patented Deo. 31, 1912.

serial No. 422,017.

ranged in V-shaped sets or hopper-likefor#` mations having their adjacent edges spaced `apart. so as to form an outlet, or opening,

between each such set, for the material. Be-

above the. horizontal plane of such o-pening and 1n the bottom of this trough is.

placed the usual bed or pocket of quick sil-1 ver. This trough is designed to contain fluidi which serves as a resisting medium within which the outlet from between theplates is always submerged and it serves the purpose of momentarily checking the flow and giving the heavier, or precious, metals an opportunity to sett-le into the quick silver. Owing t-o the fact that sand, pulp or other auriferous material varies considerably nin different mining localities I have made pro, vision for varying the depth, vdensity or resistance of the above-mentioned resistance medium so as to permit free escape of the refuse without permitting escape of the gold Yor precious metal.

The water or fluid in the trough I call leverage water and its lifting force is determined by its depth and i.

the depth of the trough from its edges to the outlet from between the plates determines the distance the material must flow upwardly lfrom said outlet to said edges. The greater' the distance of the upward flow the less will be its lifting force; thatis, the momentum gained by the solid matter at the outlet between the plates will be gradually decreased upwardly until, in the case of the metals to be caught in the trough, it is entirely over-` come before the edges of the trough are reached. A plurality of sets of plates and troughs are provided so as to not only obtain a variable resisting medium for each outlet or opening between each pair of plates, but variations of the resisting mediums relatively to each other, so as to insure the eventual capture of even the most minute particles of gold and particles which are disk or boat shaped and which therefore float more easily than the more ordinary grain form. By making a careful adjustment of the different sets of. plates and troughs my improved machine is capable of catching even Hour gold and taking gold out of clay, something which has heretofore been exceedingly difficult to accomplish.

Another particular object of my improvements is to separate the gold from the gravel or pulp by a gentle gravity process and thereby avoid disturbing the mercury, or

causing it to flour or disintegrate into small beads which are carried oif and lost together with such gold as they may have collected. To obviate such difficulty 'it is necessary to effect the separation with the" ment and arrangement the necessity of providing such uncertain expediente as riffle plates interposed in the path of the current, is obviated.

My improvement is designed also as a testing apparatus from which the requirements in the way of a permanent arrangement for any given mining ground may be determined.

Figure 1 is an end elevation partly broken away of my improved separator. Fig. 2 is a side elevation partly broken away. Figs. 3 and 4 are enlarged details of certain of the parts.

In the drawings 5 is the frame of the machine in the upper port-ion of which is mounted the revoluble screen 6 having the discharge end 7 thereof tapered, and open as best shown in Fig. 2. The other end of the screen is also open and will be called the feed end of the screen. A. feed hopper 8 opens into the feed end of the screen. A shaft 9 extends longitudinallythrough the center of the screen to the tapered part and is connected to the periphery by spiders one of which 10 is shown in Fig. 2. This shaft is revolubly mounted in 'bearings 11 secured to the frame. The screen is provided at the junction of the main body with the tapered or discharge end Vwith an annular reinforcing ring 12, which engages supporting pulleys 13 which are mounted in bearings secured to the frame at that end of the screen. In the interior of the screen are the spiral conveyers 14 which cause the material that is too large to pass through the mesh of the screen to travel through the screen as it is revolved and be discharged therefrom. The screen is so mounted that a portion thereof projects into the washing tank 15 as shown by dotted lines in Figs. 1 and 2. The bottom of the washing 'tank has convergent sides or slopes at an angle sufficiently acute to carry the material passing through the screen into the tank to a central discharge pipe 16, at which the fluidity or consistency of the material may be conveniently and properly varied and from Vwhich the material passing through the washing tank is discharged upon a chute 17, down which it passes into the separator or amalgamator 18, which will be fully described hereafter. The sides of this chute 17 l diverge from the receiving to the discharge vend of t-he chute so as to spread out the entered t-he amalgamator.

A valve 19 controls the flow of the materialthrough the discharge pipe 16. This valve is preferably made of rubber and is suitably secured upon the end of lever 20, which lever is pivoted in bearings 21secured upon the bottom of the washing tank. A toothed detent bar 22 adjustably engages lever 2O so that the opening through the -discharge pipe l16 fro-m the washing tank can be controlled as desired. The amalgamator consists of baffle plates 23 and 24 in the top portion thereof which are preferably set at right angles to each other.- The ends of these baflie plates project into grooves 25 in the end timbers 26 which are preferably constructed of wood and bolted together. Screws 27 are provided to hold the baffle plates in their adjusted positions. By moving the baffle plates upwardly a larger opening is provided between the lower ends of the bale plates without changing their angles of inclination or the incline of the path over which the material must flow. Immediately below the opening between the upper pair of baffle plates I provide a V-shaped baffle trough 28, the sides yof which are preferably shorter than the balile plates. Below the baffle trough I provide another pair of baille plates, and below these bame plates are V-shaped amalgamator troughs 29, in the lower portion of which troughs I place mercury 30 to catch the gold as it is passing through the amalgamator or concentraton For the purpose of varying the depth of each of these troughs, or the force of resistance or leverage of the liquid mass therein, the sides of these amalgamator troughs are provided with adjusting plates 31 or wings at their upper edges, which have the ends thereof in grooves 32 in the end timbers and are also provided with slots 33 therein through which bolts 34 pass. These bolts are counter-sunk and secured in the sides of the amalgamator trough and are provided with wing nuts 35 to hold the plates 31V iny their adjusted positions. There are as many amalgamator troughs as may be desired in order to catch the free gold. There are as many baffle plates as there are amalgamator' nap in which the gold will settle. In the drawings the lower trough iswshown lined ISU with fabric, .but in practice I prefer toline the upper troughs with :the fabric. Insome cases all of the troughs wouldfbelined with fabric. I provide the sides of the amalgamatorwithcovers' and38 which-are provided with ears 39 ithrough which the hasp of a padlock may beplaced to flock the covers upon the .amalgamation One of vthese covers is preferably provided :at `the bottom thereof with an upturned end forming a U-shaped Vtrough 40, and when it is desired to remove the .mercury .from the amalgamator it will be 'tipped down-on that side provided with the trough until the mercury runs lout of the amalgamator troughs and down into ythe trough at the bottom of the cover, from which it would be collected in a suitable .receptacle when `the cover Vis removed.

The material that is passed over the lowest amalgamator trough falls into :a receiving tank 41 from which the water may be pumped by a pump 42and run back into the washing tank where it is used over again. The `gang-ue will be shoveled out or otherwise removed from the receiving tank. Opening from Vnear the -top of the washing tank is a tempering pipe 43 which will lead a suiiicient quantity of water from the washing tank and deliver it upon chute V17 toiproduce the required fluidity in the material passing down A,upon fthe chute to cause the same to `pass through the amalgamator with the desired speed. This pipe may be provided with a valve 44 to regulate the quantity of water flowing therethrough. Within the tank is a starting pipe 45which has a valve 46 on the top thereof and runs down and terminates adjacent to the Vdischarge pipe of the washing tank. This pipe furnishes a quantity of .comparatively clear water into the discharge pipe of the washing tank to prevent the material clogging at such point.

47 is the operating shaft provided with power pulley 48 to which power is applied from any suitable source. The operating shaft is provided with a sprocket wheel 49 which is connected by chain 50 with sprocket wheel 5l mounted on shaft 9, thereby providing means for rotating the screen when power is applied to the driving shaft. On the other end of the operating shaft is a disk 52 which carries a crank pin 58. This crank pin is connected by pitman 54 to walking beam 55 which operates pump 42.

I have shown the amalgamator troughs V- shaped and so arranged that the material passing through the amalgamator will overflow both sides, but if desired they couldV be so arranged that the material would flow over only one side, but I consider the arrangement shown inthe drawings the better arrangement as it gives more capacity. If desired the amalgamator troughs could comor other amalgamating metal to be sepa-V rated therefrom would be fed into the feed hopper `and power `would be'applied to the operating shaft to rot-ate the screen at the desired rate of speed. As the screen is rotated the rock or `other material that is too coarse to pass through the mesh yof the screen will-be worked out of the discharge end thereof by the screw conveyer, but as it passes through the screen it will be subjected to the action of the water so as to remove all Vline material therefrom, which drops upon the Vbottom of the washing tank andthe particles of solid matter slide, r-oll and grind against each other down to the discharge outlet of the vat or tank. As soon as :a suiiicient quantity of material has collected in the bottomof the washing tank the valve on the discharge pipe thereof is opened a sufficient distance to permit the desired flow of material `out of the washing tank. This material passes down the-.chute which vspreads it evenly Vinto the amalgamator. It is caused, iirst, to pass between the-baille Vplates forming the top set and into the baiile trough, from which it ,flows onto `the next pair of 4baille plates and between this second pair of baiile plates into the vfirst amalgamatcr trough. The use of the baffle trough is to Athoroughly liquefy the material. A portion of the gold will beV taken up by the mercury in this trough and a 4portion will pass over the sides of the iirst trough down upon the set of baille plates below, thence into the second `amalgamator trough where most of the gold passingover the first trough is caught.

I have found in practice that a very small quantity of gold will be caught in the third amalgamator trough, but for safety I prefer to provide one' or two additional troughs with mercury in them, and in some cases to provide two or three additional amalgamator troughs lined with fabric at the top or bottom of the Vmachine to catch such gold as will not amalgamate with the mercury. While I have shown the baille plates and the sides of the amalgamator troughs at an angle of 45 degrees I do not desire to limit myself to suoli angle, but I have found such angle very satisfactory in practice. The angle of the baffle plates and sides of theV amalgamator trough and the distances between the lower ends of the baffle plates and the height of the sides of the amalgamator troughs should be such that the material flowing therethrough will flow with suificient velocity to carry the black sand always found in gravel the combination of a pair of reversely in-y clined plates having an opening therebetween, means for varying the size of said openingv without -varyin the inclination of saidplates, a trough a aptedto contain a fluid body arranged to submerge said opening, and means for varying the depth or resistance of said body. i

2. In a separator of the class described, the combination of a plurality of pairs of reversely inclined baille plates spaced apart to form outlets,-means for varying the sizes of 'said outlets withoutvarying the inclinations of said plates, means for submerging'said outlets Ain fluid resistance bodies, and means for varying the resistance of each of `said bodies yrelative to each other and relative to each of said outlets.

y3. In a separator of the class described,

the combination with an amalgamator case,

of a pair of plates arranged in substantially V-shaped formation having an outlet opening at the apex thereof, a troughV within which said opening is placed, said trough adapted to contain a body of water that will Copies of this'patenc may be obtained for troughs,

troughs being arranged to alternate so that Athe material passing through the amalga- :mator will pass around the lowest portions of the plates and the'highest portions lof the amalgamator troughs and Ameans for varysubmergeisaid opening, and means'v for varying the depth of said body of 'Water vfor the purpose of varying its lifting force as set forth. 5

4. The combination with a separator of the class described, ofV a series of pairs of plates, the plates .ofeach pair arranged at an angle with relation to each other and spaced apart to form an outlet at the apex of said angle, means forv submerging each of said outlets in a body of Water for each outlet and thereby providing a resistance medium foreach of said outlets, means for varying the force of suoli resistance at each individual outlet, and means for varying such resistance mediums relatively to'each other.

5. In a separator of the characterV described herein, an amalgamator comprising plates and a plurality of amalgamator` said plates and amalgamator ing the depths of said amalgamator troughs and thereby the distance that material must travel from said lowest to said highest 'pori tions. Y v

In witness that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto subscribed Vmy name this 14th l day ofMarch, 1908. Y

WILLIAM R. MQRSE.

IlVitnesses:v

' G. E. HARPHAM,

S, B. AUsTiN.

five cents each, by addressingtheCommissioner of Patents,v Washington, D. 0..

Va plurality of pairs of reversely inclined i 'y 

